A pro-Palestinian group is calling for activists to “shut down” next week’s Global Conference for Israel, a four-day gathering in Denver of prominent Jewish leaders and supporters of Israel.
The annual conference has become the latest focal point of reaction locally to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, which it launched in response to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israeli soil. The conference, organized by the Jewish National Fund-USA, is set to begin Nov. 30 at the Colorado Convention Center.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who is Jewish, is scheduled to speak at the event on its opening night. The Denver Police Department said Wednesday that it was “working with the organizers to ensure a safe event.”
“As a precaution, the department will be providing additional resources to enhance security surrounding the conference,” DPD’s statement read. “We will not share specific numbers or planning strategies for safety reasons.”
The Global Conference for Israel is expected to attract around 2,500 people to downtown Denver. It is the 22nd annual gathering, according to Sam Goldberg, president of the Jewish National Fund-USA Mountain States board. Last year’s conference was in Boston.
Pro-Palestinian activists have organized recurring events in Denver, maintaining a presence that included interrupting the Colorado legislature’s special session on property taxes over the weekend.
On the Colorado Palestine Coalition’s Instagram account, the organization declares that “Zionists,” “racists” and “genocide apologists” are “not welcome” in Denver, referencing next week’s conference. In a Nov. 13 post, it called for the shutdown. But exactly what an attempted shutdown would look like is unclear.
Abdullah Elagha, an organizer with the Colorado Palestine Coalition, told The Denver Post in an interview Wednesday that he was “not sure exactly what we will be doing” during the conference.
He’s critical of the Jewish National Fund-USA, saying the organization, which describes itself on its website as “Your Voice in Israel,” has had “a direct hand in the brutalization of Palestinians” for decades. He pointed to both the war in Gaza as well as the ongoing building of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the United Nations has found violates the Fourth Geneva Convention, as concerns.
“The state of Israel, or any of its affiliated organizations, should not be fundraising in our state in the middle of a genocide,” Elagha said, referring to the more than 12,700 Palestinians who have been killed since the war in Gaza began in early October. That figure has been released by the Palestinian health authorities.
Israel began launching air strikes, and later ground incursions, in Gaza after Hamas terrorists brutally slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 people hostage in the Oct. 7 raid. Israel declared war on Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary cease-fire agreement, announced Wednesday, that’s intended to allow for the release of dozens of hostages taken during Hamas’ raid.
The conference in Denver was planned well before the latest hostilities, but the escalations will have an unavoidable impact. Goldberg, from the Jewish National Fund-USA Mountain States board, discussed his outlook.
“Hamas will not be forgiven for its intentional murder of babies and the brutal rape and mutilation of women,” he said. “All of the hostages that remain in Gaza must be freed immediately — especially the little kids.”
At the same time, there are “certainly reasonable and thoughtful critiques of Israel” to be had, Goldberg said, and many of them will be voiced at the conference.
But those who support Israel’s destruction, he said, “are unwelcome.”
Elagha’s interest in the war is personal. He was among Palestinian-Americans who recently recounted to The Post how their families in Gaza have been affected by the war. Elagha’s family has lost more than 30 members to Israeli airstrikes since the war began last month, he said.
A spokesman for the governor, Conor Cahill, told The Post this week that he intends to deliver remarks at the conference as planned.
Polis, Cahill said, “strongly believes that Israel has a right to defend its citizens against Hamas and to respond to the brutal murder of hundreds of Israeli citizens, and to work to facilitate the return of hundreds of hostages.”
Cahill added: “Here in Colorado, he has made it clear that hate against Jews, Muslims or Christians will not be tolerated, and that includes ensuring that any effort to intimidate or prevent people from speaking to a group of Jewish Americans convening in Denver does not succeed.”
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